New Century Productions installs Calrec console in latest HD truck

July 17, 2006

New Century Productions (NCP) will outfit its latest HD mobile production truck with a 72-fader Alpha digital audio console from Calrec Audio. The sophisticated digital audio board features Calrec's new Bluefin high-density signal processing system, which more than doubles the processing power of the console on one DSP card. New Century's latest truck, the NCP-VIII, is slated to roll out in August.

NCP-VIII will use the Alpha for mixing major sporting events, such as the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Major League Baseball's Word Series, the Breeders' Cup horse-racing competition, and the Super Bowl pre-game show. For these types of events, the Alpha will need to mix more than 100 incoming audio sources simultaneously, including stereo and 5.1 surround-sound sources.

With the processing power of Bluefin, the Alpha is capable of providing 78 full 5.1 surround-sound channels from its complement of 162 stereo and 156 mono channels and eight surround groups. Each channel and group is fully equipped with full EQ and dynamics, and the system has 23 minutes of user-accessible delay elements, four surround main outputs, 48 multitrack outputs, and 20 auxes.

The selection of the Calrec Alpha for the NCP-VIII marks the fourth installation of Calrec mixers in NCP trucks. Currently, NCP owns two analog Q2 consoles and carries a 96-fader Alpha on the NCP-VII truck.